The folks who run the annual Crawfish Festival in Syracuse continue to explore new options for cooking and serving the little crustacean from the bayous of Louisiana.

Making Crawfish BreadVolunteers for the annual Syracuse Crawfish Festival, to be held in Clinton Square May 3, work on their technique for making Crawfish Bread. The dish, a crawfish tail and cheese mixture served in bread, is one of the new items on the fest menu this year.

This year, they're introducing Crawfish Bread to the menu. It's a mix of crawfish tails, aromatic veggies (the Cajun "trinity" of onions, green peppers and celery), and lots of cheese, cooked up and served on crusty French bread. (See recipes).

At this year's Crawfish Fest, Saturday in Clinton Square (details below), that dish will join hot boiled whole crawfish, boiled Gulf shrimp, red beans and rice, jambalaya and other Louisiana favorites, along with more familiar Upstate foods like clams and salt potatoes.

And there's a new Syracuse twist. New Orleans native and current Baldwinsville resident Ben Schlater, the event's "boil captain," will drop some Gianelli sausage in the boil pot, to create a North-meets-South flavor combo. (In Louisiana, they'd be more likely to use spicy andouille sausage).

The fest benefits Operation Northern Comfort, a local group that helps people who have lost homes to fires, floods and other disasters. It grew out of Operation Southern Comfort, which sent teams of Syracuse-area folks to the Gulf coast to help with rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

Back to the Crawfish Bread: This is a dish that makes excellent use of crawfish tail meat -- which is easier to handle (and sometimes to find) than whole crawfish. The classic dish Crawfish Etouffe also uses tail meat.

"There's lot of ways to eat crawfish," Schlater said.

Even better, most any dish that uses crawfish tail meat can work with shrimp -- a plus for Central New York shoppers.

Crawfish, which comes from marshy inland areas, typically has a more earthy, rich flavor than shrimp. And, because it is found inland, it was not as affected by the 2010 BP oil spill as oysters, shrimp and some other seafood. It is also farmed.

In Central New York, the Wegmans in DeWitt is carrying crawfish tail meat,, while Price Chopper stores sell bulk and 3-pound bags of pre-boiled, then frozen whole crawfish in Cajun spices.

Some specialty fish stores also occasionally have crawfish, especially in spring, when the crawfish season is at its peak.

Crawfish fest volunteer Joyce Reap found the recipe for Crawfish Bread in her travels to Louisiana with Operation Southern Comfort. It's popular at the food stands during the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (which is going on now).

The recipe Reap is using is slightly different, heavier on cheese (including cream cheese), and comes from the Islenos community of St. Bernard Parish, just outside New Orleans. The Islenos are descendants of immigrants to south Louisiana from the Canary Islands.

Schlater said the Crawfish Bread is a slightly different take on pistolettes, a Cajun specialty of French bread ends stuffed with seafood, then fried.

Last week, Reap and her volunteer helpers experimented with the Crawfish Bread recipe, to make sure they can produce it for those who come to the fest. They'll use about 60 pounds of tail meat, purchased online from the Louisiana Crawfish Co., a vendor that packs it in dry ice and ships it.

In particular, they worried about the heat level -- specifically how much of the Tony Chachere's Creole seasoning to use. In the end, they decided to keep it fairly low, and let people douse their crawfish bread with extra Tabasco sauce if needed.

The Crawfish Bread will sell for $7 for a 6-inch sandwich.

Meanwhile, the main attraction remains the boiled crawfish. Schlater expects to receive a shipment of 2,500 pounds of live crawfish the day before the fest.

He's also on hand to help people in the sometimes tricky technique for eating whole crawfish -- it's a pinch-and-twist maneuver that takes a bit of practice.

"People can just ask and I'll come out and help," he said. "Once you get it, you can go through them pretty fast."

DETAILS

What: 7th Annual Crawfish FestivalWhen: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 3.Where: Clinton Square.Admission: The fest is free. Food and beverages are for sale.Food: Boiled crawfish, Gulf shrimp, jambalaya, red beans and rice, pulled pork, clams, salt potatoes and more.Music: C'est Bon, The Fabulous Ripcords, Soul Risin', Los Blancos, Sarah & Greg.Benefit: Proceeds go to Operation Northern Comfort, which rebuilds homes and does other construction projects. This year, according to founder Norm Andrzejewski, the group is doing several projects with Clear Path for Veterans, plus rebuilding one home in Oswego County destroyed by fire, two homes in Oneida damaged by flooding, and nine wheelchair ramp projects around the area.

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